HMS Prince Regent (1823)

HMS Prince Regent was a 120-gun first rate three-decker ship of the line of the Royal Navy that was completed as a guardship in 1823. She served as a flagship until 1832. The ship was razeed down to a two-decker 92-gun second rate in 1844–1847. She served in the Baltic Sea in 1854 during the Crimean War. Prince Regent was placed in ordinary at the end of 1854. The ship was converted to steam power in 1860–1861 and never went to sea before she was broken up in 1873.

The Caledonia class was an improved version of HMS Hibernia with additional freeboard to allow them to fight all their guns in heavy weather. Prince Regent measured 205 feet (62.5 m) on the gundeck and 171 feet (52.1 m) on the keel. She had a beam of 53 feet 7 inches (16.3 m), a depth of hold of 23 feet 2 inches (7.1 m), a deep draught of 17 feet 6 inches (5.33 m) and had a tonnage of 261376⁄94 tons burthen. The ship was armed with 120 muzzle-loading, smoothbore guns that consisted of thirty-two 32-pounder (56 cwt) guns^{[Note 1]} on her lower gundeck, thirty-four 24-pounder 49 cwt guns on her middle gundeck and thirty-six 24-pounder Congreve guns on her upper gundeck. Her forecastle mounted a pair of 12-pounder guns and two 32-pounder carronades. On her quarterdeck she carried six 12-pounders and ten 32-pounder carronades.^[1]

Prince Regent was ordered on 6 January 1812, laid down at HM Dockyard, Chatham on 17 July 1815, launched on 12 April 1823 and commissioned 6 December 1822. The ship was completed on 3 September 1823 and became the flagship of the Commander-in-Chief, The Nore, Vice-Admiral Sir Benjamin Hallowell and continued in that duty until 1831. She was paid off after a voyage to Lisbon, Portugal, in 1832. Prince Regent remained in ordinary^[2] until the Board of Admiralty decided that she was so crank-sided that she had to be cut down a deck and ordered her converted into a 92-gun second rate in March 1844. The work lasted until September 1847 and proved to be exceedingly expensive; enough so that further conversions of a similar nature were considered uneconomical.^[3]

The ship was recommissioned on 7 December 1847 and was the flagship of Rear-Admiral Armar Lowry Corry, commander of the Western Squadron, in 1852–1853. Prince Regent was part of the fleet sent to the Baltic in 1854 during the Crimean War. She was paid off and placed in ordinary in 16 December 1854 and remained in that statues until 1860. The conversion of the ship to steam power as an 89-gun second rate was ordered on 3 February 1860 and work began at HM Dockyard, Portsmouth, five days later. It was completed on 27 May 1861. Prince Regent never went to sea afterwards and her demolition was completed on 28 July 1873.^[4]

• Lambert, Andrew D. (1991). The Last Sailing Battlefleet: Maintaining Naval Mastery 1815 - 1850. Conway Maritime Press. ISBN 0-85177-591-8.
• Lavery, Brian (1984). The Ship of the Line. Vol. 1: The Development of the Battlefleet 1650-1850. Naval Institute Press. ISBN 0-85177-252-8.
• Lyon, David and Winfield, Rif (2004) The Sail and Steam Navy List: All the Ships of the Royal Navy 1815-1889. Chatham Publishing. ISBN 1-86176-032-9.
• Winfield, Rif (2014). British Warships in the Age of Sail 1817–1863: Design, Construction, Careers and Fates. Barnsley, UK: Seaforth Publishing. ISBN 978-1-84832-169-4.